The embodiments herein relate generally to deep foundation pile members. More specifically, the invention relates to cast-in-drilled hole reinforced concrete piles.
Cast-in-drilled hole reinforced concrete piles with enlarged bases are commonly used foundations to support houses, buildings, piers, and other structures above the ground. These reinforced concrete piles are formed by digging a hole within the ground to create an upper shaft cavity connected to a larger lower bell-shaped base cavity. These types of piles, also known as Bell-Bottomed Pier Deep Foundations are formed by inserting a cage into the hole comprising a plurality of rebars connected together and disposing concrete into the hole to secure the cage in place.
Current Bell-Bottomed Pier Deep Foundation Piles are structurally inefficient, which results in the need for more pile constructions, concrete, reinforcement members and ultimately labor. This greatly increases the overall construction and/or maintenance costs of the piles. Further, the structural performance of these piles is deficient because the reinforcement members including the rebars are not properly oriented throughout the bottom bell-shaped cavity. As a result, this problematic design results in a greater incidence of shear cone stresses throughout the bottom bell-shaped cavity, which causes premature failure of the pile.
As such, there is a need in the industry for a system and method for enhancing the structural performance of cast-in-drilled hole reinforced concrete piles formed from an upper shaft cavity connected to a lower bell-shaped cavity within the ground. More specifically, there is a need for the concrete pile to have rebars better distributed throughout the upper shaft cavity and lower bell-shaped cavity to enhance the load-bearing capacity of the pile and reduce failure rates.